


such great heights

by bread_boy



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, au where yeonjun can shrink himself down to 10 inches bc why not, please let me live, this is purely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22032967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bread_boy/pseuds/bread_boy
Summary: Soobin always had a feeling he'd be taller than Yeonjun the moment he grew an inch past his hyung, but he wasn't expectingthis.(or: Snapshots of Soobin's life after finding out Yeonjun can shrink himself at will.)
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 204





	such great heights

Yeonjun lets Soobin in on his secret four months before their debut, the two of them alone in the dorm since the three younger members were out for school.

"Soobinnie, don't freak out, okay?" Yeonjun says as he plops down on the seat across Soobin, who stops midbite from his cereal, squinting at the older boy warily. The fact that Yeonjun's twiddling his thumbs on the table in a show of faux innocence just makes the entire thing more suspicious.

"What is it..." Soobin subconsciously leans away; as much as he trusts Yeonjun, he also knows from experience ( _years_ of it) how much of a rascal he can be when it comes to practical jokes.

His reaction has Yeonjun frowning, the crease in his brow lined with something akin to hesitance. But then he squares his shoulders, splays his hands on the table before taking a deep breath.

"Just. Just promise not to scream? Well, at least not too loud."

That's all the warning Soobin gets before a loud pop echoes within the walls of the kitchen, and as he blinks in bewilderment, Soobin realizes that Yeonjun has, quite literally, vanished into thin air, the seat in front of him visibly empty.

Or at least that's what he thinks, until he feels a tug on his sleeve, followed by a "Down here, Soobinnie!"

Soobin's always had a (metaphorical) weak heart when it comes to surprises, so he supposes his reaction– which involves some (very manly) shouting and nearly flipping the table over– to his bandmate shrinking down to the size of a large bubble milk tea cup is very much warranted.

Pocket-sized Yeonjun seems to think otherwise, however.

"I told you no shouting!" he hisses through gritted teeth, but Soobin's face must've shown how faint he's feeling, because when he continues, his voice takes on a softer tone. "Hey... Soobinnie, it's okay. It's still me. It's still Yeonjunnie-hyung."

And it's the way he says it, gentle like that time Soobin had been ranked at his lowest during their early trainee days, with Yeonjun alternating between rubbing his back and patting his head before finally taking a sniffling 17-year old Soobin out to their favorite fried chicken place.

It's enough to at least quell Soobin's racing heartbeat, and for him to finally snap his jaw shut. He still keeps a wide berth between them though, having jumped away from his seat the moment he laid his eyes on Yeonjun.

"W-what..." The plethora of questions in Soobin's mind makes it difficult for him to grasp what exactly he wants to say first, so Yeonjun decides to fill him in instead.

"I can shrink at will." is what he starts with, doing a little twirl in place. He grins up at Soobin, arms spread wide as he faces him again. "It's something I could always do ever since I can remember. At first my parents thought it was a medical condition, but the doctors never found anything. I was as healthy as any boy could be. Then my grandmother from my dad's side told him her father had the same ability, and that after skipping two generations, it must've been passed down to me."

Soobin feels his earlier apprehension morphing into something more subdued, but still as intense, his grip on the back of the chair tightening as his eyes grow rounder.

 _Fascination_ , he realizes, the tight feeling in his chest similar to what he'd felt as a kid when he'd read his first Harry Potter book.

But that thought soon fizzles out when Soobin's reminded that this, right now, right _here_ in their tiny dorm kitchen that they share with three other boys, all five of them set to debut soon, isn't something out of a book. _This_ is their reality.

"Hyung," Soobin starts, squaring his shoulders the same way Yeonjun had earlier. "I'll be honest with you... I think my brain's still convinced this is all a dream, and that I'll wake up any second, but! But, if this is real, and you really are just as big as my cereal box right now, then you have to tell me if we have to keep this a secret. Because I will. For you."

The last bit comes out in a tumble of words, but Soobin thinks that must have been the right thing to say, if the way Yeonjun's expression melts into fondness is indication enough.

"Manager-hyung doesn't know."

Soobin nods his head, tucking that information in the back of his mind. "Okay, so I take it the rest doesn't know too–"

"Actually," Yeonjun drags the word out, hands behind his back as he starts toeing some cereal crumbs on the table. "the three of them already know. You're the last one I haven't told yet."

Soobin feels a tic on his cheek. "What."

"Don't take it personally though! I didn't plan on them finding out the way I did with you." Yeonjun crosses his arms then, the memory of it still clearly hitting a nerve. "With Beomgyu, it was because I was trying to pull a stupid prank on him. I was gonna pretend to be a worm in his sock– which is a bad idea, by the way, for obvious reasons– then with Taehyunnie and Kai, it was because they couldn't accept defeat over hide and seek. They _made_ me 'fess up in ways you couldn't imagine, Soobinnie."

He ends this with a bodily shudder, holding his tiny form with both arms as he gazes up at Soobin. "If it were up to me, you would've been the first to know."

Soobin sighs, conceding with a weary smile as he finally decides to sit back on the table.

"It's okay, hyung," he places his arms on the table, bending over so he can inspect Yeonjun closer. Aside from his size, everything else is the same, from his piercings to his clothes. "so, where do we go from here?"

This seems to remind Yeonjun of something particularly important, his face lighting up in a mixture of excitement and delight. Soobin doesn't pretend not to find the sight of it extremely endearing.

"There's something I've always wanted to try..." Yeonjun steps forward, then, "Can you lean down for me, Soobinnie?"

Soobin raises an eyebrow at the unexpected request, but he follows along with a small shrug, bending even lower until his face is inches away from Yeonjun, who, after a moment's hesitation, sticks his tiny hand out and asks, "Can I?"

Soobin puts two and two together right away, a warm sensation filling his chest despite the oddity of the situation. "Of course."

Even in his pocket-sized form, Soobin finds Yeonjun's smile still as dazzling as it's always been.

"So soft." Yeonjun coos, poking Soobin's cheek with his whole hand, and the sensation of five tiny fingers pressing down his face makes Soobin smile, mostly because it's _Yeonjun's_ tiny fingers. This elicits a gasp from the older boy, those same fingers now poking the deep indents on Soobin's cheeks. "Your dimples! Soobinnie, I'm poking your dimples!"

Needless to say, Soobin's heart melts just a little bit more on the spot.

*

A few weeks later, Soobin walks into their shared room, frowning as he looks around, then drops his gaze to the three younger members on the floor who are deeply engrossed in their game of Crocodile Dentist.

"Has anyone seen Jun-hyung?"

Beomgyu looks up at him, squinting against the light. "Nope." he says, then proceeds to poke Kai's side. "Yah, you have to press down all the way or it doesn't count!"

"Okay, okay!" Kai surrenders, putting both his hands up. "And no, I don't know where he is either, hyung."

Soobin sighs, running a hand through his hair as he holds up a plastic bag with the other. "What am I supposed to do with the ice cream he asked me to buy then?"

Taehyun, without looking up, chimes in, "Why don't you just eat it so it doesn't go to waste?"

Soobin makes a face at that. "No matter how much I love ice cream, I'm not eating mint choco."

"Eugh." Taehyun scrunches his nose. "Just flush it down the toilet then."

"Hey!" comes a muffled voice from somewhere inside Soobin's jacket. There's a bit of wiggling that follows after that, then Yeonjun, in all his 10-inch glory, pops his head out from the front of Soobin's shirt. "I take full offense from that."

"What the–" Beomgyu jumps in surprise at the same time his finger ends up getting snapped by the toy crocodile. "Ah, noooo! Jun-hyung, look what you did!"

Yeonjun pointedly ignores this, along with Taehyun and Kai's delighted cackling, to tilt his head up at a disapproving Soobin.

"Hyung..."

"I know!" Yeonjun cuts him off, a pout already forming on his lips. "I know I shouldn't have shrunk myself without telling you but–" then his pout breaks into a smile, bright and radiant as can be as he places his chin on both hands. "This is my favorite hoodie on you! Plus, you asked me what I wanted."

Soobin's brow creases further into a frown, already a little cross-eyed from staring down at his tiny hyung in such close proximity.

"Yes, I did ask that..." he says slowly, recounting their earlier conversation. "and you said mint choco ice cream."

Yeonjun snorts, smacking Soobin by the collarbone, which technically, feels like nothing given how small he is.

"I know I did– but it's _you_ , dummy. I wanted to take a walk with you."

Then there's a resounding pop, and in a blink of an eye Yeonjun's back to his true size, all 182cm of him clinging to Soobin as Soobin carries him bridal-style.

"Hi." Yeonjun greets shyly despite the wide grin nearly splitting his face, eyes positively twinkling.

"Hello, hyung." Soobin greets back, trying for exasperated, but the soft look in his eyes paired with the surety of his grip as he holds Yeonjun says otherwise. "Next time, let's just go to the convenience store together. Normal-sized."

Yeonjun's grin is practically from ear-to-ear now. "Okay. Normal-sized." he echoes.

"Oh my god, newsflash: people _exist_ here." Beomgyu interrupts, his finger still caught between the toy crocodile's jaw.

*

Good days will always be interspersed with the bad; this is something that Soobin knows all too well. So it doesn't come as much of a surprise when, after a particularly rough day full of dance practice and vocal lessons, Yeonjun is nowhere to be found.

Soobin exchanges knowing looks with Beomgyu, who nods his head and rounds up the two youngest members to the kitchen as Soobin turns the other way, heading straight to their room.

He stops just in front of the door, knows that Yeonjun would know if anyone were standing outside, so when no protests reach Soobin's ears, he makes the decision to come inside.

The door creaks open slowly, the light from the hallway spilling into the room until Soobin peeks in, his shadow eclipsing the sudden brightness.

"Hyung?" he calls out tentatively. He steps inside the room, eyes flicking from one bunk bed to another. "Taehyunnie ordered us dinner. It's chicken and tteokbokki tonight, hyung."

Despite knowing food isn't enough bait this time around, Soobin tries anyway, and his efforts bear fruition when he spots the bedsheets on one of the beds– _his_ bunk bed, Soobin notes with a fond ache– moving before stilling once again, like Yeonjun hadn't meant to be spotted in the first place.

Soobin sighs, but he keeps the sound of it to himself as he makes his way towards the bed, his sock-clad feet muffling his steps.

He places a hand on the sheets, right where he can spot the small lump that is undeniably Yeonjun, shrunk and curled in on himself.

"Yeonjun-hyung..." Soobin whispers, carefully sitting on the mattress so as not to jostle him. "Hyung, please talk to me. Or at least let me see you."

Soobin decides to wait it out then, taking Yeonjun's decision to burrow under Soobin's blankets as a sign in itself. It's approximately six minutes later when the sheets start moving again, and Soobin watches as the lump crawls up, up, up until Yeonjun pops half his face out.

Even in the dimness of the room, Soobin can make out the puffiness of Yeonjun's eyes, and the sight of it makes Soobin want to reach out, to take Yeonjun and hide him away from the world, keep him in his jacket pocket so it's only the rhythm of his heartbeat going _Yeonjun, Yeonjun, Yeonjun_ that Yeonjun will ever have to hear.

"Soobinnie..." Yeonjun's voice is hoarse, frayed around the edges and so unlike his usual bubbly tone. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

This is what ultimately breaks him– the fact that Yeonjun, even in his moment of loneliness, of desolation, of _feeling_ small, chooses to put Soobin's feelings first before his own– Soobin can take a lot of things, but this he cannot bear.

"There's nothing you have to apologize for, hyung." Soobin grips the blanket tightly, and suddenly, more than anything, he just wants to hold Yeonjun.

"No, Soobinnie... it was stupid of me to get worked up, but I just– I just feel so embarrassed that we had to practice so many times because I couldn't get the steps right."

It all comes pouring out in a rush of words, the burden of its weight heavy in the silence. Yeonjun has lived up to the title of Number 1 for so long that being less than that has become something to dread, to _fear_.

Soobin can't imagine how debilitating and isolating it must feel. 

"Hyung..." he starts, slow and careful because he wants Yeonjun to remember each and every word. Because this is important. Because _he's_ important. "what you're feeling right now is real, and it's valid, so I'm not taking that away from you. But, hyung–"

Soobin leans closer, so close that it's only him that Yeonjun sees, everything else blocked out and irrelevant. "You don't have to feel it alone."

Yeonjun pushes the blanket away from his face at that. He hiccups, tears filling up his eyes again, "Soobinnie..."

"I'm here, hyung. So come back." Soobin whispers gently, his tone tender. "Come back to me."

There's a sob, followed by a pop, and the next thing Soobin knows is he's laying face-up on the bed with an armful of Yeonjun, sniffling and trembling and burying his face into Soobin's neck.

Soobin doesn't say anything else at this point, and instead wraps his arms around Yeonjun, hiding him from the world as his heart beats _Yeonjun, Yeonjun, Yeonjun_ , hoping that he will be comforted just by this.

(He is.)

*

Soobin wakes up to the sensation of something feather-light brushing his cheek, eyes fluttering open only to find a very tiny, very pink-faced Yeonjun staring back at him.

"Hyung?"

The last tendrils of unconsciousness begin unfurling from his sleep-muddled brain, so that by the time Soobin's rubbed his eyes, he's squinting curiously at the older boy.

"Was that you?"

"Huh?" Yeonjun decides to play along, looking for all the world like an innocent, wee lamb. His pink cheeks, however, tell a different story. "Was I what?"

Soobin's never been one for bold statements or rash decisions; if there's an opportunity to rethink his next course of action, he'll take it, multiple times, over and over.

But right now, with Yeonjun looking so tiny in all senses of the word, Soobin wants nothing more than to dive in, to finally take his other foot off the ledge, because now he knows that Yeonjun's jumped over long before him, already waiting with open arms.

"Yeonjun-hyung," Soobin says, lets the name roll out his tongue slowly, lazily, smiling when Yeonjun blushes even more. "if you want to kiss me, do it when you're back to your regular size. Or else it doesn't count."

Even before the familiar pop goes off in Soobin's ears, he's already reaching out, pulling in Yeonjun by the wrist while his other arm circles Yeonjun's waist, slotting their bodies together perfectly.

"Hi." Soobin greets, reminiscent of the way Yeonjun had done weeks ago.

Yeonjun seems to catch on, because he's got that same dazzling grin lighting up his face again, greeting back with a "Hello, Soobinnie."

Then, he leans in, but instead of pecking Soobin on the cheek, Yeonjun whispers under the curve of his jaw, "Kiss me."

Soobin obliges with a smile, makes sure that Yeonjun feels the shape of it when their lips finally touch.

(The moment is only partially ruined by Beomgyu, who enters the room without so much as a knock.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." he groans loudly, doing an about-face even before Soobin's managed to untangle himself from Yeonjun. "Don't stop on my account. I'll just let Taehyunnie and Kai know we're all sleeping on the couch forever."

This is then immediately followed by Taehyun's "Why are you even acting surprised at this point?" and Kai's "Sweet Potato and Molangie already called dibs on this couch, Beomgyu-hyung, so I guess that means you're sleeping on the floor.")

**Author's Note:**

> if you follow me on twt you'd be familiar with parts of this fic from the ficlets i initially wrote bc i went Rabid (yes, with a capital r) for this au ;-; 
> 
> if you want to scream at me about pocket juni or see more yeonbin shenanigans from me, feel free to check out my [twt](https://twitter.com/ttubinni)!


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